Disclaimer- Naruto is not mine.

(Thoughts.)

3

Sakura, Neji and Sai were still standing when others left. Well, it's apparent that Kakashi didn't train them. They ascertained that nobody was around and quickly dropping the henge checked on their captives who were still out cold.

"We must find a way to contact our border base so that we can interrogate them." Sakura said while removing the genjutsu from before. "It's not safe to be in this place. Sai, scout the area for similar secret paths". "Neji and I are going back to the camp site. We will see you in two hours."

Sai was about to fly away on one of his birds when they sensed a chakra nearby that sent all of them into a defensive crouch. Sakura sighed. It seemed a battle was inevitable. The next moment, a ninja entered the grove.

"There is no need of that."

He looked like one of the mercenaries but as they watched, he transformed into another ninja with a leaf headband. He had a tall and lean built with silvery violet hair and silver-grey eyes. "Akira Hashimoto. Leaf."

...

It was a morning just like another. Birds were chirping and the sunlight flitted through his window. He could smell the tea brewing somewhere nearby: tulsi, his favourite. The mattress under Sasuke was just so soft and he didn't want to wake up. It was so cosy to even open one's eyes. Why, then, was he feeling put out? Not that he was ever merry in the morning or offered bright smiles to random people during the day; that wasn't his habit, it was more of Sakura's but there was just some...Sakura! The events from yesterday came rushing back to his fogged mind and he suddenly remembered the reason he was pissed off. He had proposed marriage to Sakura and she had declined! A jolt of anger passed through him.

The bed didn't appear too inviting anymore, he decided to get up. Muttering profanities and threats of life to that arrogant teammate of his, he finished his morning tasks; too annoyed to even think about breakfast, he decided to let out his steam in one of the training grounds. He reached the one where Team 7 always trained. It was empty. Good. Walking over to the trees he took out his chokuto and with one graceful swing neatly severed the leaves and branches around him. He felt some of the satisfaction he was craving for. A bit more of the same movement and there were more fallen branches and leaves. Swift destruction was always intriguing- the type where he would severe the neck and it won't even shift from its place; the owner dying without even realising the source of his death. He liked stealth and precision, not the ear-shattering massive destruction. It was more of Sakura's forte...Sakura...All of a sudden, the chokuto felt more deadly into his hands and with a vicious feeling creeping into him, he slashed and slit at everything around him. Contentment is never as sweet as in the moment of destruction.

An hour later, he was still dancing with his sword, the area around him empty of any foliage or trunks, when he heard a snort. Sasuke looked up to find Naruto lounging atop a lone tree. He wasn't even sure how the blonde was even sitting there while looking quite comfortable. Shaking his head, he just glared at the intruder.

"Hey Sasuke!" Naruto offered him a grin. "Why are you brooding here with a tree shoved up your ass?"

"Are you here for a reason?" Sasuke snapped without dropping the glare. Naruto seemed unruffled. Ignoring his question, he just continued. "Not that you ever go around without one, but this morning it seems particularly higher. Care to share?" The blond offered with another infuriating grin.

"I am fine, thank you so much, and I will be finer if you would just get your pathetic ass off that tree and out of my eyes." Sasuke grounded his teeth.

"Woah. Easy, now. I was just looking for Sakura. Her apartment is empty and she is not with Ino, so I thought that perhaps you knew something. Do you?"

"I. Do. Not. Know. Anything. About Sakura." He spat out accentuating every word with a slash on the tree Naruto was sitting on, getting even angrier when the tree was divided to pieces but that orange dead-last didn't even falter. "When did you learn to maintain your balance?" He asked supremely annoyed.

"Sage training." Naruto just shrugged. "The point is you do know about Sakura. What did you do?"

"What did I do? Why do you have to assume that I am the one responsible?" His vein was bursting now.

"I was just guessing. Why? Did you do anything?" Naruto chuckled. This was so entertaining: watching the bastard lose his cool.

However, it seemed the bowl of his patience was particularly shallow that day. "Listen, Naruto. I suggest, you leave right this moment or, and I don't care about the consequences, I will certainly rip you apart slowly and painfully. After that I will blast your irritating mouth to Suna." Sasuke sizzled and the killing intention was unmistakable. Naruto decided he had had enough fun for today. It was time to annoy the Hokage.

"Fine, fine! You don't want to tell me. I think I will go pester Baa-chan. She might have sent her on a mission. See you later, Teme." He looked up just in time to see Sasuke demolish another tree. "...way later," he added as an afterthought and ran off to the Hokage tower.

Sasuke was left with his murderous thoughts. Why is Naruto always looking for Sakura? She is not the only kunoichi in the village. Sasuke would find someone better and stronger than her, that way he wouldn't need to put up with her irritating bossy attitude. Yes, that's what he would do...but...who else is there and wouldn't that mean that he would allow her to reject him? Him. Should he pursue her? But what difference would there be between him and those men who run after her, then? Argh...No point in thinking anything. He would just decide when he sees her next. With a pseudo- decision made, he proceeded to clear the remaining landscape. Oh! The satisfaction!

...

"Akira Hashimoto. Leaf." The ninja greeted with a smile and a bow. "I assume you are the team sent from the village?" His gaze roved over them and stopped at Sakura, or rather her hair and then at her. She mentally rolled her eyes and nodded. "Nice hair, by the way."

"Same to you." Sakura smiled good-naturedly.

"We were not supposed to meet here." Neji intervened.

"I was on my way to the meeting point when I located a suspicious target. It was too important a lead to skip, so I followed him. And it appears you did the same."

"We have important information."

The velvet haired ninja flicked his head and they followed him.

...

There were around ten shinobi stationed in the underground camp. "We need to interrogate our captives and get them back to the village." He added when they reached there.

"The village is in immediate danger. We would return to the village. The interrogation squad would handle these men, meanwhile we would notify the Hokage of the information we have." Sakura wanted to panic but that would be of no help, she was the leader of this mission; her voice had the clinical tone she used when dealing with an exceptionally difficult surgery. "We would leave in three hours." She turned to the ninja named Hashimoto. "Hashimoto-san, you have been observing these activities from quite some time. I suggest you come to the village as well."

He looked at her intently and after a moment accepted. "I would relay the message to the village."

...

2 days later...

It was midnight when they neared the village enough to see the boundaries. The forest around them was cold and quiet but the lights from the village nestled in mountains were twinkling, providing them with a semblance of warmth. Finally, Sakura thought, they were back to home; home which might be under attack in four weeks. There was no time. If what those rogue nins were talking about was the truth, then Konoha would is under severe threat and they didn't even know who was behind this. She wanted to hope for the best but that would only be a wishful fantasy. Everybody was silent around her, lost in their own thoughts, when they sensed the approaching group coming from the village's direction. Soon, two ninja came into the view, Naruto conspicuous from afar. He noticed Sakura and with a flourish jumped on the branch just in front of her.

"Sakura- chan." He greeted her with twinkling eyes and despite her misgivings, she felt at ease. "I heard you brought captives."

Neji, Akira and Sai stopped behind her. He offered them another grin, his brows creasing at the sight of the unknown ninja and flicking back to her. "I don't know you. Say, Sakura-chan, who is this?"

The second ninja accompanying Naruto had reached them by now. "We will know when the time comes, dobe. Don't forget our task." It was Sasuke.

The atmosphere suddenly became heavy as Sakura and Sasuke regarded each other, utter dislike etched on both of the faces. The glaring match stopped only when they heard their teammate's voice. "Woah!" He exclaimed. "Something is definitely brewing between you two. Mind telling me?"

"Shut up, Naruto!" Both of them snapped at him.

"Hey! I am your teammate. I have the right to know." Naruto frowned.

"They had a fight." Sai supplied helpfully.

"Thank you, Sai. That is really enlightening. Now why did you two fight?"

They heard someone clearing their throat. "We have to report to the Hokage." Neji reminded Sakura who flushed and quickly moved her eyes away from Sasuke who continued on with his glare. "Yeah, sure. Forgive me. Naruto..."

She was stopped rudely. "We have been ordered to convey the captives to the Interrogation cell. Naruto, grab tthem." The raven haired man who seemed to follow his own course of speech stepped forward to the silver eyed ninja and took hold of his baggage. Naruto rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan. Tsunade baa-chan wants you guys to meet her as soon as you reach the village."

"No time to lose, then." They started to run towards the village.

"Hey I still don't know your name." She heard Naruto after a moment and rolled her eyes."

...

They parted ways at the entrance. Sasuke not bothering to acknowledge anyone just continued on his way; Naruto followed him with a hasty goodbye to them. Without losing a minute, they proceeded to the Hokage tower.

"Tsunade-sama." They bowed to the imposing woman sitting in front of them who only frowned in response.

"I was given to understand that the security of village is at risk." She eyed Hashimoto.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." They recounted every word they had heard in the meeting, Tsunade's eyes narrowing and mouth puckering with each passing word. "Hashimoto-san had been following those activities for quite some time and he had his lead as well, we thought it would be prudent of him to come back here." Sakura added as Neji finished.

Tsunade took a deep breath. "You all did well. We will find out the source of this coup and destroy it. Meanwhile I want you to stay alert but not to worry about it unless you are called upon. The situation is grim but nothing we haven't dealt with before. Neji, Sai you are dismissed." They bowed and left the room. "Sakura, perhaps you would be kind to show Akira to the Jounin rest house. I will call you later, Akira." She added addressing them and closed her eyes. They took it as their cue and with another bow they left the room. Sakura, burdened with exhaustion, did as instructed and went back to get some well deserved rest.

... It wasn't until hours later when she woke up. Her eyes opened to find Naruto shaking her. "Open your eyes, will you? You have been sleeping for hours."

"Naruto...what time is it?"

"10 in the morning. You came back last night, remember?"

She woke up with a start and looked wildly at the shinobi sitting in front of her. "The coup!"

"Take it easy, now. We have already acquired information from the ninja you captured. A group of us was briefed last night. Shikamaru is already brain storming and teams have been dispatched to do what is to be done." He told her with a pointed look.

Sakura looked around her. They couldn't afford to divulge important info here."What is my task? What is yours? Why are you here, did Tsunade summoned me? I will be ready in a minute."

She tried to get up but he pulled her down. "My task, Sakura- chan is to have some ramen and to make sure you have some as well."

She looked at him as if he was crazy. "Naruto, you realise that the village is not safe right now?"

"Yes, I do. However, panicking would not solve anything. We are doing everything we can and you are still sleepy. Come on, get up. We are going." Naruto got up from the floor. "Now I will wait here and if you won't be ready in 10 minutes I am barging into your bathroom." He winked.

"Like hell, you will." The sound of cracking knuckles was particularly loud.

15 minutes later, Sakura found herself walking to Ichiraku with her best friend. With Naruto around nothing could possibly go wrong, she smiled fondly at him as she ruffled his hair. He just laughed. Her steps, however, stilled when she eyed a familiar figure sitting on the booth, and rage bubbled inside her. His unruly hair was evident. Beside her, Naruto kept walking and slid on a seat leaving the one in between for her and immediately engrossed himself in perusing the menu. After a moment of indecision, she decided to do the same, careful to acquire an expression as detached as she could manage in her current state of turmoil. Sasuke didn't deign to give any reaction to her presence and continued to sit there with his bowl of ramen in front of him.

As she reached for the menu, his sleeve touched her hand.

"Don't touch me." She hissed with as much venom as she could muster in her voice.

"I don't, voluntarily, touch annoying people." Sasuke shot back.

Sakura's brows twitched. "You are calling me annoying!" She bit out with an expression of extreme disgust on her face.

"Are you deaf?" Sasuke sneered and at that moment Sakura thought she would die with utmost content if she could just punch that face to the point of misrecognition.

"Only to jerks and their useless words."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and was about to offer a colourful reply when they heard a distinct coughing sound. They looked back to see Akira Hashimoto standing there with Naruto.

"Hi! I was just walking by and Uzumaki-san invited me in." The former said with a half smile. Sasuke pursed his lips and went back to glaring at his bowl; Sakura had to be more tactful so she greeted him with a half-smile of her own.

"Of course, you are welcome to join us."

"Thanks." He ordered for his ramen.

"So, Akira, how come we have never seen you before?" Naruto asked in between his mouthfuls.

"You see, I am not from this village. I am from one of the smaller villages near the border that have allied themselves with Konoha. I was given the border patrol since the beginning."

"So, you have never been here before?" Sakura wondered.

"Only twice- once, during the chuunin exams and then for the jounin selection."

They nodded in understanding.

"So, tell me about yourselves. You are teammates?" He questioned looking at Sakura.

"Yeah! We have been together since our gennin days...well! Naruto and I have been." She answered uncertainly.

"Sasuke had to leave for a little while to finish some incomplete work." Naruto supplied. The subject was still touchy and as far as Sakura was concerned would always be.

Akira didn't seem to notice, though. "Hmmm...you are close friends, then?" He asked without taking his eyes off her. She just looked back.

"Best of friends." Naruto answered again with a wide grin followed with a frown. "Hey! What are you staring at Sakura-chan for?"

"Uh..." He flushed as Sakura rolled her eyes. "What can I say, I guess she is easy on eyes." The newcomer said with an uncomfortable laughter. Naruto's scowl deepened; punctuated with the background noise of Sasuke stabbing his pork. An awkward silence hung in the air...

...which was instantly dispelled by the obvious one. "Hey, hey! Akira why don't you spar with me? I will make you eat dirt. And Sasuke-teme over here could fight with you as well. He keeps complaining about lack of new challenges." The over-enthusiastic ninja pumped his fists in the air; the other ninja in question only grumbled. "Oh, don't mind him! He first grumbles and then he fights." With shining eyes he suggested that they could go right after they were finished there.

"Naruto, that is not healthy at all. You will be sick." Sakura admonished.

"Aw, come on, Sakura-chan. We may not get another opportunity. Tsunade baa-chan might call us."

So, after many entreaties, puppy eyes and promises of house chores by Naruto, they all found themselves walking towards one of the training grounds. Naruto bounded in the front excited with the prospect of wading new waters while others walked at their leisurely paces. Sasuke trailed after them without a word.

"Umm...Haruno-san, I apologise for earlier, I didn't mean to stare." Akira said without meeting her eyes.

"It's alright Hashimoto-san. And please call me Sakura." At least he was apologising like a gentleman.

The gentleman's eyes lit up. "And you can call me Akira. You see, it wasn't my fault. Your hair is unlike any I have ever seen. It suits you."

Sakura laughed. "Well, thank you. I can say the same about yours."

"I guess we are just two people with strange hair colour. We were destined to meet." His eyes glittered with mirth.

"Actually, not that strange. Our sensei has silver hair; Naruto's mentor has always had white hair. So, I am used to it now."

"Oh! And here I thought I was special." He said with mock grief.

Sakura raised one inner eyebrow. She heard Sasuke walking behind them. Well, it won't hurt to play along and why should she not? She was going to answer back when suddenly, a stray stone somehow soared from the road and was about to connect with the back of Akira's head when he caught it with one swift motion of his hand without even looking back. Sakura glared at Sasuke who shrugged nonchalantly. Akira looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Is something wrong with him?" He whispered to Sakura who just shook her head.

A triumphant shout informed them that they had reached the training grounds. Naruto turned back to them and was about to drag Akira away when the black-haired ninja interrupted.

"I fight first.' Sasuke looked at Akira challengingly who only regarded him with steady eyes.

"Hey! Not fair! I had the idea. I made bargains with Sakura-chan. Then, how come you get to spar with him before me?" Naruto shouted.

"I accept." The challenged shinobi answered.

Sasuke smirked as he walked away to the centre leaving Akira to follow him and Naruto to growl at him. He would show them challenge.

A/N: I apologise for this extremely late update but I was having serious problems with this chapter and am still not satisfied with how it has turned out.

A friend pointed out that I am dealing with the threat very lightly but I think that with a village like Konoha, threats would come on daily basis. So, they would be alert but won't go all berserk about it. That's what I believe, though so please give me your opinions.

Also, I would really appreciate if you could review this story: tell me what you liked and what you didn't. That would be really helpful.

Cynthia.